Artificial iris implants are designed to replace missing or defective irises in human eyes either because the patient was born without an iris (a condition called aniridia) or suffered an injury or surgical damage to the iris.
The iris is the colored part of the eye that determines eye color and surrounds the pupil, the hole in the center of the iris that controls the amount of light entering the eye. Absence of the iris would cause poor vision and very severe sensitivity to light. Implantation of artificial iris benefits patients by allowing better light modulation into the eye and thereby improving vision and comfort.
The first artificial iris implant applied in US FDA clinical trial for iris implantation was manufactured by Ophtec USA, a Dutch BV in Groningen in the Netherlands with offices in the US. The clinical trial was carried out mainly by Kenneth J. Rosenthal, an attending ophthalmologist, in Great Neck, N.Y.
Artificial irises have been used in Europe, Canada, the Middle East and Asia, but rarely in the United States because the disease, aniridia, is a rare disorder, affecting only about 1 out of every 50,000 people. Another similar device, called the Rasch-Rosenthal Iris Diaphragm Ring, was co-invented by Dr. Rosenthal and Dr. Volker Rasch of Potsdam Germany in 1996. Then with Dr. Rasch's assistance, Dr. Rosenthal became the world's first surgeon who accomplished the human artificial iris implantation surgery in July 1996.
However, these prior arts still have many disadvantages. First, it takes large space in the eye to implant artificial iris hence may cause other eye disease after implantation. Second, the artificial iris made of acrylic material is fragile and therefore may be broken in the eye and then cause damage during impact. The last but not the least, the main function of most prior arts is to make one to be pleasing to the eye instead of physical function. Most of the prior arts can not control the amount of light entering the eyes.